Python is a popular language for scientific computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its scientific packages individually can be a bit difficult, however, so we strongly recommend the all-in-one installer Anaconda. [If you already have another Python environment, fear not. Anaconda is self-contained!]
Please make sure that you install the Python 3 version of Anaconda and try doing so at least one day in advance of the workshop. If you encounter any problems with the installation procedure, please e-mail Prof. Nerenberg and/or show up early on Saturday for assistance so that you are ready to go as soon as the workshop begins.
Open https://www.anaconda.com/download with your web browser.
Download the Python 3.7 installer for Windows.
Double-click the executable and install Python 3 using MOST of the default settings. The only exception is to check the Make Anaconda the default Python option.
Open https://www.anaconda.com/download with your web browser.
Download the Python 3.7 installer for OS X.
Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation.
Note that the following installation steps require you to work from the shell. If you run into any difficulties, please request help before the workshop begins.
Open https://www.anaconda.com/download with your web browser.
Download the Python 3.7 installer for Linux.
Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation.
a. Open a terminal window.
b. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the installer
c. Type
$ bash Anaconda3-
and press tab. The name of the file you just downloaded should appear.
d. Press enter.
e. Follow the text-only prompts. When the license agreement appears (a colon
will be present at the bottom of the screen) hold the down arrow until the
bottom of the text. Type yes and press enter to approve the license. Press
enter again to approve the default location for the files. Type yes and
press enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH (this makes the Anaconda
distribution the default Python).
The data we will be using is taken from the gapminder dataset. To obtain it, download and unzip the file python-novice-gapminder-data.zip. In order to follow the presented material, you should launch a Jupyter notebook in the root directory (see Starting Python).
We will teach Python using the Jupyter notebook, a programming environment that runs in a web browser. Jupyter requires a reasonably up-to-date browser, preferably a current version of Chrome, Safari, or Firefox (note that Internet Explorer version 9 and below are not supported). If you installed Python using Anaconda, Jupyter should already be on your system. If you did not use Anaconda, use the Python package manager pip (see the Jupyter website for details.)
To start the notebook, open a terminal or git bash and type the command:
$ jupyter notebook
To start the Python interpreter without the notebook, open a terminal or Git Bash and type the command:
$ python